Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026
Legislative Progress
IntroducedReported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the …
Mr. Crawford introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 (H.R. 5167) provides the annual authorization of funding for U.S. intelligence agencies including the CIA, NSA, DIA, and other elements of the intelligence community. It authorizes $642 million for the Intelligence Community Management Account and $514 million for the CIA Retirement and Disability Fund. The bill also introduces new security requirements, oversight mechanisms, and policy restrictions.
Who Benefits and How
Intelligence community agencies receive authorized funding for fiscal year 2026 operations and personnel. CIA employees who are veterans gain expanded access to VA benefits for injuries incurred during classified service. Commercial satellite imagery companies, data vendors, and counter-drone technology providers gain new revenue opportunities through expanded procurement authorities. Defense contractors supporting intelligence operations benefit from continued funding.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Federal taxpayers fund over $1.1 billion in authorized appropriations (plus classified amounts). Intelligence agencies face increased compliance requirements including new auditing mandates for open-source intelligence expenditures, biotechnology coordinator designations, and open-source intelligence directive updates. The Chinese AI company DeepSeek is banned from intelligence community systems. Defense contractors supporting clandestine activities face new oversight and deconfliction requirements. Drone operators near CIA installations face increased risks as the CIA gains authority to disable or destroy threatening drones.
Key Provisions
- Authorizes $642 million for the Intelligence Community Management Account and $514 million for the CIA Retirement and Disability Fund
- Bans the DeepSeek AI application from intelligence community national security systems
- Grants CIA authority to detect, track, and destroy threatening drones over designated installations
- Requires NSA to develop an "AI Security Playbook" to protect advanced AI technologies from nation-state theft
- Prohibits intelligence community personnel decisions based on diversity, equity, and inclusion factors (with exceptions for bona fide occupational qualifications)
- Expands VA benefits eligibility for CIA veterans injured during classified service
- Mandates audits of all open-source intelligence and commercially available information expenditures through 2031
- Extends the intelligence community coordinator for Russian war crimes accountability in Ukraine through 2028
Evidence Chain:
This summary is derived from the structured analysis below. See "Detailed Analysis" for per-title beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
Primary Purpose
Authorizes appropriations for fiscal year 2026 for intelligence and intelligence-related activities of the United States Government, the Intelligence Community Management Account, and the CIA Retirement and Disability System.
Policy Domains
Legislative Strategy
"Annual authorization of intelligence community funding with emphasis on classified appropriations and retirement system stability"
Likely Beneficiaries
- Intelligence community agencies (CIA, NSA, DIA, NGA, NRO, etc.)
- CIA employees and retirees
- Federal employees in intelligence roles
- Defense contractors with intelligence contracts
Likely Burden Bearers
- Federal taxpayers (funding appropriations)
- Congress (oversight responsibilities)
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_director"
- → Director of National Intelligence
- "the_president"
- → President of the United States
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Has the meaning given such term in section 3 of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3003)
Has the meaning given such term in section 3 of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3003)
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology